Madeleine: Murat facing new quiz as police go back to square one

The first official suspect in the Madeleine McCann investigation is to face a fresh police interrogation, it was claimed yesterday.

Plans to re-interview Robert Murat are part of the root-andbranch review of the case which led Portuguese officers back to the McCann family's holiday apartment.

The move raises the prospect that Kate and Gerry McCann and the other members of the so-called Tapas Nine could also be re-interviewed by the new head of the investigation, Paulo Rebelo.

He has ordered a review of every aspect of the six-month case. He and six officers staged a re-enactment of different theories when they returned to the family's apartment in the Ocean Club complex on Monday.

They also walked the short distance between the McCann holiday flat and the villa where Mr Murat lives with his elderly mother in Praia da Luz, and from the apartment to the sea.

Mr Rebelo ordered his team to interrogate 33-year-old Mr Murat again after carrying out the searches at the apartment, the London Evening Standard reported.

He is examining problem areas in the investigation and 'facts that do not fall into place', a source said, adding: 'He is not satisfied with the evidencegathering at the start of the investigation - and obviously much of that work was focused on Murat.'

The ex-pat property consultant was named an official suspect on May 14 and his house and garden were searched.

He has always denied any involvement in Madeleine's disappearance. His lawyer Francisco Pagarete challenged Portuguese police to search his home once more or clear him.

Mr Pagarete said police had yet to contact him or his client about the prospect of further interviews.

A friend of Mr Murat, Tuck Price, said: "It would be great if he was reinterviewed because he wants this cleared up, but there's been no contact with the police for months."

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Officers in the case were accused last night of allowing all the evidence to become contaminated because they failed to seal off the crime scene.

Every item gathered from the McCanns' apartment has been rendered 'worthless' by the botched investigation, a Portuguese forensics official said.

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He blamed the failure on the fact that Portugal, unlike Britain, does not train police officers to seal off crime scenes before forensics teams start work. In the Madeleine case, it meant that officers did not put on forensics suits, gloves or masks before entering the apartment. Laboratory staff have complained that samples were contaminated with ash from officers' cigarettes.

Detectives drove the family's hired Renault Scenic and a van belonging to Mr Murat to the laboratory instead of sealing them off and putting them on low-loaders, and even managed to crash Mr Murat's van.

Fingerprints from the officers were found in the vehicles and potentially vital forensic evidence, including traces of DNA, could have been contaminated or destroyed.

The catalogue of errors means police effectively destroyed any chance of discovering what happened to Madeleine on the night she disappeared, the unnamed police laboratory official told the Portuguese newspaper 24 Horas.

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A friend of the McCanns said: "It is a disgrace, and Kate and Gerry are very upset. They feel the chances of catching Madeleine's abductor may well have been affected by the slapdash way the forensics and police have behaved."

The Ministry of Justice and the Policia Judiciaria refused to comment.